'Alpha Dog' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Peter's review of 'Alpha Dog' is up. As a film, he found this one entertaining enough, but not terribly insightful. As an HD DVD release, it's an equally mixed bag: the soundtrack is quite good, but the video transfer isn't up to snuff and the "extras" are even worse.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/alphadog.html

[thedynamicuno]

That's kind of a bummer, I was gonna pick this one up. Guess I'll have to give it a rent first.

[Jared]

I pre-ordered Alpha Dog as I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it theatrically. I understand where Peter is coming from in the review though. I was not familiar with the real life events before seeing the film, so perhaps that's why I didn't really have some of the same problems with the film that Peter did. As far as the disc quality, I'm not too worried since it's a new film and I don't have to contemplate an upgrade over a standard version. I planned to own it no matter what, so for me this is a no-brainer.

[BostonMA]

i wanted to see this badly when it was in theatres because i watched alot of AMW and i knew all about the jesse james hollywood situation, which is why i wanted to see it. but i didnt get a chance and it was out of the movies around me after like a week or tow i couldnt believe how short of a timespan it had at the movies. but once i heard of its release of may 1st, i preordered it and i'm now waiting for my confirmation email of it being shipped. cant wait but i do wish and i really thought that this movie was going to get a good PQ reivew.

[AndyMT]

grain is all over the place

funny, this being a film and all.

sounds like the reviewer didn't like the style of the film. so why mark it down because of that ? if there was ee, dirt, scratch etc. fair enough, but sounds like this probably looks like it was intended.

[Blurry]

Originally Posted by AndyMT

funny, this being a film and all.

sounds like the reviewer didn't like the style of the film. so why mark it down because of that ? if there was ee, dirt, scratch etc. fair enough, but sounds like this probably looks like it was intended.

I relate to this comment because grain is often part of the intended feel. So if they passed the movie through a grain removal filter, would it have scored higher? But then the transfer would have been attacked for not being pure to the original. *sigh*

I am not criticizing Peter's review here, just pointing out the ambiguous situations such things create. I personally have no problem with grain, as long as it is film grain (as opposed to micro-digital artifacts which can sometimes look like grain - more common with low bitrate MPEG-2 encodes).

[Cochise]

On it's way from Netflix. From IMBD reviews & comments this didn't sound like a movie I'd want to see more than once, but the poor PQ review is a surprise. I'll see what I think. I thought The Game was better than the review here.

[Brad1963]

I have not seen the film; but understand from others that because of the low budget and the way the film was shot, it is intended to look the way it looks.

[messin18]

Seems like the big question would be did peter actually see the movie in the theatre?

[VC-1]

That review is WAY off.

The film looked exactly the same in the theatre, it was a low budget film. This is the same stuff boneheaded reviewers were saying about the Terminator 3 HDDVD.

If they artificially sharpened/removed film grain/etc. it would defeat the purpose of the film in HD.

HD is supposed to render a 1:1 copy of a film. Don't watch low budget movies (or film for that matter) if you want rock solid PQ perfection. Go buy Happy Feet or some other digitally shot movie.

[Iggytx]

My netflix copy is here today, and I'll be watching it tonight.

[Blurry]

I just finished watching the Netflix rental and I have to say that I found it pretty powerful in a tragic way. I guess movies that speak to the misguided folly of some people reach me at a certain level, like this movie did. Thematically I might compare it to Fargo, though the style was utterly different - but both show how petty plans can go so massively awry with such tragic consequences.

If this is something that appeals to you, then I wholeheartedly recommend this movie - I was not expecting much from it and yet it managed to move me. Also, btw, this movie is unquestionably HD and I saw nothing in my viewing experience that suggested that I was not seeing the intentions of the film-maker (I would put this at tier 2 and possibly even tier 1 - only some style elements dragged it down a little).

[Iggytx]

Originally Posted by Iggytx

My netflix copy is here today, and I'll be watching it tonight.

Good movie, I enjoyed it and thought the PQ was pretty good. Not one I would watch over and over again so I'm glad I rented it. But as Blurry states above (post up there ^), if these types of movies interest you, go for it.

[marine92104]

I watched it tonight. I rented it from Netflix. It seemed to me like the director used different types of cameras to film the movie including camcorder.

So I think the different types of pictures you were seeing in the movie were what the director intended to use for different sections of the movie.

You have to take that in account when you are giving a review.

I've never really trusted reviewers because some of the times they don't take into account what the director intended. They are using the same criteria they would use on a big action blockbuster for video & sound.

It turned out to be a great movie. Took me totally by surprise but you could tell it was a low budget movie.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by marine92104

I watched it tonight. I rented it from Netflix. It seemed to me like the director used different types of cameras to film the movie including camcorder.

Well, that might explain it - I thought I was watching two different versions that kept switching in & out, an HD and SD version. The daytime outdoor / well lit scenes are decent HD picture quality. But any night / darkly lit scenes seem like standard def DVD - very blurry with blacks horribly crushed, very hard to distinguish any detail. It looks like they just encoded the movie on one pass with all the filters set on default, with no tweaking for the poorly lit scenes. I think it's a poor HD DVD release. Bottom Tier 3, at best.